If you’re a follower of this blog you were probably here in the spring of 2011 when I connected with my good friends Duane Watson and Will Strickland to form All Balls Don’t Bounce, a sports media content collective that worked to explore stories not often told in this market. We screened movies — Dave … Continue reading →

July 2007, I stood on the sideline of the main athletic field at Upper Canada College, watching Argentina’s national team practice for a semifinal match at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup, a tournament that began and ended in Toronto. I was watching guys like Maxi Moralez and Sergio “Kun” Aguero do their thing, scribbling notes … Continue reading →

Confession: In August 2011, the moment I learned I’d been traded from the Toronto Star’s sports department to its business team, I felt a twinge of anxiety over how I’d manage this task. More than a twinge, actually. I worried for a week about how I’d connect with an audience interested in finance and the economy … Continue reading →

When I’m between books I return to Ralph Wiley — specifically to Serenity, which, along with W.C. Heinz’ The Professional, is about finest book on the sweet science I’m aware of. Give me half a reason or none at all and I’ll pull it from the bookcase, crease the spine and start reading. But tonight, … Continue reading →

When I met Angel Guillen last September at a dusty baseball diamond in Maracay, Venezuela was a spindly 15-year-old pitcher with a whip for a right arm and big dreams drawn to scale. I visited him while reporting a feature on Venezuela’s role in the global baseball-industrial complex, getting to know kids who hoped to … Continue reading →

Yeah, it’s been a while but I’ve been busy writing — just not here. In May I enrolled in a creative nonfiction class at Ryerson University here in Toronto, and for eight weeks my work for that course consumed all the time and energy I had to devote to away-from-the-day-job writing. I guess I could … Continue reading →

Ha llegado el Cinco de Mayo, an annual holiday that for me means a hard morning workout followed by diet-destroying gluttony at places like La Mexicana or Tacos el Asador. Days like this I treat the menu like Williams treated the escorts in Enter the Dragon. Waitress: Sir, would you like the pulled pork soft tacos … Continue reading →

Fans of The Wire will remember the scene toward the end of season three, when Avon Barksdale and Stringer Bell take a brief break from plotting each other’s downfall to meet on a rooftoop and talk about the old days while gazing out over Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. When Stringer laments the real estate deals he … Continue reading →

Boxing isn’t dead. It’s shacking up with MMA and Krav Maga and living quite comfortably in south Florida, where pro fighters from around the world train for big fights in multipurpose gyms from Fort Lauderdale to Kendall. How do I know? Because, contrary to what I told you guys in my last post, I couldn’t … Continue reading →

No, not for good — but you can consider this my pre-emptive out-of-office autoreply. Tuesday morning I fly to Miami for a few days of warm weather and beaches and food trucks and salsa. Plans include catching up with old and new friends, watching the O’Jays at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino, and possibly seeing … Continue reading →